Tithes and Imperial Taxes: The Pledge (Neh 10) and Persian Period Tax Collecting Customs

This paper focuses on the regulations concerning tithes appearing in Neh 10:38-40. These verses raise several exegetical and practical questions: Why are the tithes being taken by the Levites themselves in the rural areas and not delivered to the temple by the Israelites like the rest of the contributions mentioned in the pledge? What is the meaning and function of the "vessels of the temple"in their context? Following a discussion of different scholarly treatments of these questions, it will be proposed that the answer to them (and a different understanding of the Levites' role) lies in a Mesopotamian imperial tax-collecting custom from both the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods. Contemporaneous cuneiform documents indicate this custom's prevalence and its impact on the lives of the Judean exiles in Babylonia. Hence, it is most likely that it is also the background of Neh 10:38-40.